Passengers in South Yorkshire will be the first in the country to benefit from flexible new Tram Trains that will make their journeys easier and more convenient.

Transport Minister Norman Baker today (17 May 2012) gave the green light to a £58 million pilot scheme to run revolutionary Tram Trains on both rail and tram networks, making them ideal for the eight mile non-stop journeys of no more than 25 minutes between, suburb and city centres from Sheffield to Rotherham.

As well as providing a boost to the regional economy thanks to improved connections across the region, the project is also expected to create 35 new jobs locally as well.

As part of the major works being undertaken to make the project a reality includes the electrification of a stretch of track between Sheffield and Rotherham and the construction of 400 metre line linking the tramway to the train tracks.

Norman Baker said:

Providing better connections between Sheffield and Rotherham’s city centres and residential areas will help to reinvigorate the local economy. It will also encourage people to leave their cars at home, making this pilot environmentally friendly.

This is great news for passengers in South Yorkshire and potentially it could benefit people across the country wherever tram and rail networks exist together.

Tram Trains have already proven hugely popular on the Continent. Now we will be able to test whether they can bridge the gap between tram and train networks in this country.

We welcome the announcement today by the Minister confirming approval of the funding for the Sheffield /Rotherham tram train project. It is further welcome investment by government in the transport infrastructure of South Yorkshire. The project will provide important enhanced local connectivity and demonstrate the potential, both locally and nationally, of this new technology to deliver value for money services.

For the pilot to go ahead, rail infrastructure operator Network Rail will electrify a stretch of track between Sheffield and Rotherham.

We have already learned a significant amount about how a Tram Train could benefit Britain’s rail network. Now we can move into detailed design and delivery of the infrastructure to support this exciting project which will bring lasting benefits to passengers in the Sheffield and Rotherham areas.

Northern Rail’s Managing Director Ian Bevan said:

We are working with our partners to pilot Tram Trains on the network as we believe these vehicles can complement heavy rail, particularly in outer urban and semi-rural areas around major cities with an existing tram network. There are lessons to be learned here and Northern cities are among those well placed to benefit from them.

Margaret Kay, Managing Director of Stagecoach Supertram, said:

We welcome today’s announcement and look forward to playing an important role in this pilot. Tram Trains offer us the potential to deliver greener, smarter public transport services to even more people. We have a strong track record of providing high quality, good value services to the people of Sheffield day in, day out and we are excited at the prospect of being able to expand our services even further through this ground-breaking project.

If the pilot is successful, it opens the way for Tram Trains to be introduced in other parts of the country.

We’ll be watching Sheffield’s Tram Train pilot very closely as we have begun work to understand whether this technology could be deployed within Greater Manchester. Tram Train could combine the advantages of the better access to the city centre our Metrolink tram system provides with the reach of the rail system into neighbouring districts. It has the potential to both improve public transport for passengers while also making our local rail services more cost-effective.

The new Tram Train vehicles will operate from 2015 on Sheffield’s Supertram network and on part of the national rail network, which will be adapted to allow seamless travel from one to the other.

There are expected to be three services an hour all day and every day. These will operate from Parkgate Retail Park in Rotherham travelling through Rotherham Central Station and joining up to the existing Supertram network at Meadowhall where the services will then continue onwards to Sheffield City Centre.

Notes to editors

The Tram Train pilot is a partnership between the Department for Transport and Network Rail, Northern Rail Ltd, South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) and Stagecoach Supertram. SYPTE will lead on delivery of the pilot.

Seven vehicles are being bought for Tram Train and the additional Sheffield Supertram capacity announced in 2011. The total project is estimated to cost £58 million.

A procurement competition led by Northern in 2009-10 identified Vossloh as the lead bidder for the supply of the Tram Train vehicles. Because Northern’s franchise ends before the two year experimental period, the contract for the vehicles will be let by South Yorkshire PTE and the vehicles are expected to be operated by Stagecoach Supertram.

Tram Train will commence in 2015 and the pilot will run for two years with a view to permanent operation. Tickets will be fully integrated with Supertram.

The core objectives of the Tram Train pilot are to:

understand the changes to industry costs of operating a lighter weight vehicle with track brakes on the national rail network;

determine changes to technical standards required both to allow inter-running of lightweight tram vehicles with heavy rail passenger and freight traffic and to gain the maximum cost benefit from Tram Train operation;

gauge passenger perception and acceptability of Tram Train;

determine the practical and operational issues of extending Tram Trains from the national rail network to on-street running; and

understand the technical and operational challenges involved in this project so that the concept can potentially be rolled out elsewhere

A Tram Train vehicle is based on a tram that has been enhanced to make it suitable for operation on the main line as a train as well as street running. Typically a tram train will have:

higher vehicle crashworthiness to allow for the higher average speed operations of it and other trains and to resist slow speed collisions with heavier trains;

enhancements to the signalling system to minimise the risk of a collision between trains and Tram Trains. This involves installing train protection and warning system (TPWS) at all signals, whereas TPWS is currently installed at junctions and sites with high levels of signal passed at danger (SPAD) incidents;

Road Traffic Act compliant head lights and direction indicators for on-street operation and to meet rail main line lighting requirements for visibility;

additional main line signalling and communications equipment such as TPWS and the Global System for Mobile Communication - Railway (GSM-R);

nore seating than a tram for longer distance journeys;

a wheel profile suitable for both tramway and standard main line track.